


moonwalk

by nopompousjargon



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: And Lena Luthor WILL KNOW, Canon Divergent, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Kara Danvers WILL BE Supergirl, Lena is still the CEO of L-Corp, Soulmate AU, Swimmer!Kara, but not really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-07 22:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21465307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nopompousjargon/pseuds/nopompousjargon
Summary: Swimming is supposed to keep her mind off of things that don't need her attention. They told her to live life normally; be just like everybody else.Live like a human.But every time she looks at her, there's an odd sensation always crawling under her skin, beating in her chest, and they aren't unpleasant. No, not at all.Kara can say that looking at her doesn't make her feel human;But better than one.OrKara's pod doesn't get stuck in the phantom zone for long. It manages to escape its hold, but engine failure occurs, leaving it floating in space as time went by. She arrives on Earth as a twenty-four-year-old woman, taken in by the Danvers' as usual, and tries to live life like a normal human being.Her powers are subdued; thanks to her adoptive parents' help, but despite all the barriers they've created to keep them at bay, Kara can't seem to keep them under control when an adrenaline rush is uniquely triggered by one person:Lena Luthor.OrThe soulmate au that's not really a soulmate au?
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 26
Kudos: 189





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's me, back again with another piece. This time a multi-chaptered one! I know the summary doesn't really explain the title, but I swear, it'll make sense eventually. Cross fingers, I write decently to imply it somewhere along the line at least. :)
> 
> I also made a tumblr page so... come bother me there, if you like? @nopompousjargon
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

**(alex worries too much; two months before.)**

Many things are happening at once.

Alex is worrying too much, that Kara can definitely tell. She's practically bouncing from one side of her room to another, collecting clothes and trinkets and little devices invented to help Kara fit in the human crowd.

It's an entertaining thing to watch.

When Kara first came to earth, Alex was the one who stayed calm, who suggested that she be brought into the DEO for inspection without even batting an eyelash at the barely covered alien standing before her. She was even the first person to agree with Superman when he suggested that, for her own good, it's better if she stayed with the family who once helped him have a normal childhood. 

The Alex she's grown to love and care for is always calm and collected, but this Alex? This Alex is... _funny_.

Her thought must have translated immediately into action because Alex is suddenly screeching to a stop, turning to her with a mean glare in her eyes. 

Kara has long learned that it doesn't mean any harm unless she's holding a weapon in her hand. Right now, she's holding Kara's... underwear. 

The laughter in Kara's face is instantly gone and she feels her cheeks warm up as she stands to snatch the garment from Alex's hand with an indignant huff. 

"We agreed before that you will never touch my undergarments again," Kara huffs again, and Alex simply stares at her.

"It's under_wear_, Kara. We've been at this so many times. _Underwear_."

"Undergarment. Underwear. They're the same thing, Alex!" Kara throws her hands in the air as she walks around the agent, placing the little, odd things in her bag. 

"Sure, but no one says undergarment nowadays," Alex turns around to face her, hands planted firmly on her waist. "It's not common for people of your age to use that, okay?" 

"Are undergarments a part of common conversations amongst people of my age?" Kara snaps her head to Alex, a look of horror in her face. 

"What- no! That's not what I-" Alex sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Okay, never mind. Underwears are not discussed over coffee or lunch, so relax. Just... just say underwear. Stop being so stubborn."

"Fine," Kara purses her lips. "Underwear."

"Thank you."

"Why can't I say _panties_?"

"... Let's just finish packing."

//

**(present time.)**

Fun times are what she’s holding onto these days.

After a year of living on earth, it is still hard for Kara to forget about the world she left behind, and maybe it’ll never be easy. Maybe she’ll never forget about Krypton, about her family and the life she could be having now had her planet not exploded into nothing behind her back.

So, fun times are what she’s relying on to keep her mind off of things.

National City seems fun so far.

After making sure she had all her things settled in her new apartment, Alex had suggested for her to find a club or an organization to join to keep her busy in the meantime. It’ll help her learn how to interact with humans better, she said, and so far? Kara definitely agrees because she found the perfect place for herself.

Back on Krypton, she didn’t have the chance to enjoy the water as much as she could on earth, so at the first sight of the huge indoor pool, as they were touring the more exclusive side of the city, Alex had to hold her back and keep her from drowning herself.

A fair reminder that, yes, because of the fact that she mostly stayed in their home on Krypton, she never learned how to swim.

So, she signed up for a membership in an exclusive gym, with the help of Alex, purely for its pool facilities.

And swimming classes, of course.

It’s been two months since she started and, granted, she is usually pushed to the side with a random student to teach her the basics first, but Kara is a fast learner, that much her colleague has told her once during their sessions. If only she can make the coach see just how much she’s perfected the butterfly stroke so she could join the rest of the students in her class.

Maybe not today.

“Maybe next time, Kara.”

She sends her colleague off with a nod and a smile, thanking her for her time and patience. As the rest of the students do the same, she bids them all goodbye with a cheery wave of her hand while still submerged in the water.

“You’re not coming out yet?” One of them asks, and Kara responds with a shake of her head.

“Need to practice my strokes!”

They all laugh in good nature, and only when they disappear into the shower room does Kara turn away to hold onto the edge of the pool.

While training with someone who’s gentler and nicer than the grumpy coach is one of the things she looks forward to during practice, being able to stay behind and _float_ around is still her _most favorite_ part of her day. When she first came to earth, it had been hard to keep herself from floating off the ground because of the difference between Earth’s gravity and Krypton’s. She had to walk around with little sandbags strapped around her wrists to weigh her down, which thankfully didn’t last long when Jeremiah came up with a bracelet that emits a small dosage of red sun energy into her skin to subdue her powers by just a tad; just enough to make her feel more human than a Kryptonian.

And for the most part, Kara is thankful for the bracelet around her wrist because it makes her safe; it keeps her from the wondering eyes of curious humans, and boy, there are lots of them. But after experiencing how it feels like to float in mid-air? Kara finds herself _wanting _that feeling more and more, and she’s very thankful to have found it in the water.

In the water, she’s almost weightless. With minimal energy exerted, she can keep her feet off the floor and move around as though it was her first day on earth when she struggled to keep herself planted on the ground.

She lets go of the edge and takes a deep breath, allowing her body to do the rest.

Floating on her back, with her ears submerged and eyes closed, helps a lot with muting the rest of the world around, and there are times when she wonders just how much she can _mute_ the entire universe around her if she is underneath the water.

The mere thought of it makes her heart pump a little faster, interrupting the calmness she’s found in the absence of other people, and she quickly opens her eyes to balance herself. She shifts and aligns herself with the walls, wondering if she can ever do _that_.

But just thinking about how it felt like to be sitting in that pod for a long time; watching her limbs grow longer, her body outgrowing the only thing she had left of Krypton until she had no choice but to take it off and use it as a blanket instead. Remembering how it felt like to feel so helpless because she couldn’t do much in such a small space… It makes it hard for her to _even_ imagine pushing herself under the water where _every_ single part of her body, every inch of her skin and her entire structure is engulfed in something that can potentially end her life, especially with the bracelet firmly clasped around her wrist.

She swims closer to the wall and places her arms over the edge, glancing down at the bracelet, fingering it slowly. Yes, she can remove it and save herself. The Earth’s yellow sun provides so much for her to survive this new planet, but the bracelet has become a sort of comfort for her.

_Knowing_ that it’s there, feeling its presence is enough to keep her heart beating steadily – like a human.

“Maybe next time, Kara,” she repeats the words she heard earlier, still tracing the shape of the bracelet around her wrist.

But when will next time be? Next session? The session after next?

She wonders for a long time, contemplating whether she should just do it now or not, but the latter eventually wins. Her heart is beating way too fast at this point as if she’d swam ten laps in the fifty-meter pool.

Yes. Maybe next time.

To stabilize her heartbeat, she begins to do breathing exercises. Head up, inhale, head under the water, release the air inside her lungs and make bubbles, and repeat the process.

She does this a few times until she feels her weariness subside. Deciding that she’s done for the day, she plants her hands firmly on the edge of the pool and pushes herself up, only to feel her elbows buckling when the sound of something breaking the water’s surface resonated in the otherwise quiet gym.

She allows herself to slide back into the water before turning around to inspect. Her eyes narrow at the sight of what is obviously _someone’s_ head bobbing up and down the surface of the water, and she shouldn’t really watch because it’s not exactly a new sight for her. She’s watched many people do laps since joining the gym two months ago, but there’s something in the way this person looks as they perform flawless butterfly strokes that makes Kara feel silly.

God, no, it’s not even that _flawless_. This person isn’t swimming fast enough, steadily enough, and yet the first thing that came to her mind is… _flawless_?

Or maybe it’s the back of this person that is flawless.

It’s pale. _Very_ pale, almost like snow or unpainted paper, and it’s really captivating her because she’s never seen someone this… pale. Not since arriving in Midvale and not even when she moved into National City.

As the person comes nearer to where she’s posted, Kara catches the briefest sight of a strong jawline when their head emerged from under the water and, again: pale cheeks, long neck, dotted… _no_, mole. They are moles on her neck and it’s fascinating. 

The person almost seems _otherworldly_ to her.

Kara feels the slightest uptick of her lips as she continues watching this person swim. She can hear their heartbeat, steady and strong; every inhales and exhales, every shifting of her limbs and bones and—

She can hear them. She can hear these sounds that no human being should hear from this distance and…

She shouldn’t be.

She glances down on her wrist in panic, instantly feeling a sense of relief when she finds the bracelet still firmly placed where it should be, but dread quickly takes over at the implication of what just happened.

Is it malfunctioning? Is it because of long exposure to water?

She swallows heavily and finally turns to heave herself up from the water. Grabbing her towel from the nearby chair, she quickly makes her way to the shower room, not even noticing the silence that came after her retreat.

//

“You said you heard her heartbeat?”

“Yes.”

“And you had your bracelet on?”

“Yes, Alex, I already told you a million times. I had my bracelet on.”

“Okay. Calm down. I’m just making sure, okay? Was it glowing red?”

“Yes,” Kara sighs wearily and raises her hand to show Alex the device. “Like it is now. We tested this before, right? It’s completely waterproof and it’s proven to continue working even after hours of underwater activities so… I don’t understand how I started hearing and seeing those things from that distance.”

Alex is silent, deep in her thoughts as she stares at the bracelet, and Kara is just about to snap her fingers in front of her face when the agent holds out her hand. “Give it to me.”

“What? Why?” Kara covers it with her other hand, moving her hand away from Alex. “I need it.”

“I know, but I need to check why it malfunctioned; see if there’s anything I can do to fix it.”

“But what about… me? What if I accidentally do something and people find out-“

“You won’t,” Alex reassures her as she takes out a pair of glasses and another bracelet. She picks up the glasses and hands it over to Kara first, saying, “This is lined with lead. This will help keep you from seeing through things.”

Kara takes the glasses from Alex and, with obvious reluctance, wears them over her eyes. Nothing happens right after, but when Alex takes her distraction as an opportunity to take off her bracelet, she instantly feels the effect. There’s a quick second when her vision brightens up, solid things turning into nothing but sheer fabric, but it’s gone just as quickly as it came.

Her heartbeat spikes up again. Even with the glasses on her eyes, even with her x-ray vision muted with lead, she feels her irritation building up at what Alex did – taking her by surprise like that. She feels her hands turn into fists, and she tries — God, she tries so hard to control herself, to push down her anger, but it’s only when she hears something crack and _something else_ click around her wrist, that she feels her rage drain from her body.

And Alex is there, holding her, keeping her seated while one hand is covering one of her fists, rubbing it with her thumb soothingly so she’ll let go of the broken table. She’s whispering softly, apologizing to her for what she’s done, and Kara… she tries her hardest to remind her that Alex is one of the people, if not the only one, who’s cared for her more than anyone ever could since she arrived on earth.

Alex is not an enemy. She doesn’t mean harm. She just wants what’s best for her.

She just wants to keep her safe.

“I’m sorry.” Alex is still repeating over and over again, risking her vulnerable, human body as she keeps the strong Kryptonian in her embrace, and the mere thought of Alex risking her own safety for Kara is enough to take all the fight from her.

She softens in Alex’s embrace and reciprocates it with a soft pat on the agent’s back.

“I’m sorry, too,” she whispers, embarrassed and guilty for losing control. “I didn’t mean to… you just- I was just surprised. It’s been a year since I experienced that and I just- I’m sorry.”

Alex pulls away with a little smile, shaky, but still there, and she shakes her head at Kara. “You’re fine,” she lets go of the Kryptonian slowly and looks down at the new bracelet around Kara’s wrist. “This one emits a little bit more of red sun energy, _just a little bit_. Just to make sure. If you encounter that person again, observe, okay? See if it’s just that one person or if we simply have to… make more adjustments with your bracelet.”

“I understand.”

//

The gym has been vacated by most of its members and, as usual, Kara’s left in her lonesome to ‘practice her strokes.’

It’s become a common excuse to stay behind and it’s still proving to be very useful and believable. More so these days than before. It’s been two days since she has to exchange her bracelet with a new one and though it’s only emitting _just a little bit_ more dosage of red sun energy, Kara can definitely feel the difference.

She’s practicing her backstroke today – the easiest and probably her favorite stroke of all strokes taught to her. Probably because it allows her to keep face up in the air and not underneath the water, enabling her to breathe steadily even if a horrible, stray thought is to invade her mind and interrupt her flow.

Back to practicing backstrokes. She’s definitely feeling _more_ human today. Her arms are already screaming for a reprieve, legs stiffening, and breath quickening, but she hasn’t even reached the end of her lap yet. She’s rather determined to finish it, so she pushes through. She pushes and huffs and puffs until she knows her hand will finally tap the edge of the pool.

But instead of feeling the solid reassurance of its end, Kara feels her hand colliding with something _soft_ instead, and her hand bounces off of it as she hears a soft hiss.

With a gasp, she rights herself and turns to the source of the sound.

“That was a mean tap.”

Kara’s mouth drops open. She’s not sure why, but she’s almost sure- _no_, she _is_ sure that the woman sitting on the edge of the pool, _sitting right in front of her_, whose leg she accidentally tapped, thinking that it’s solid cement, is the same woman she watched two days ago.

She can never forget that pale skin, the moles on her neck, and the jawline. And now, she’s sure she can never forget those green eyes. The perfectly shaped eyebrows and her long hair as dark as nights in Midvale. No. There’s no mistaking.

It is her.

Kara is suddenly hyperaware of herself, keeping her gaze locked on the woman’s face because her vision is _doing it again_. She should have just worn her lead-lined glasses in the water.

“Oh, God, don’t make me look down,” she murmurs to herself, but the woman obviously catches it because she frowns and shifts her leg over the other.

“What?” she asks with a chuckle, and in another time, Kara would have taken the time to note how smooth her voice sounds like, how its deep tone feels like a hand caressing Kara’s chest to soothe her worries. “Actually, I’m here because you have something that is mine.”

Kara’s curiosity and fascination immediately vanish. Dread crawls over her heart, squeezing it with its vice grip, and Kara pauses when she becomes aware that her body is _floating_ by itself in the water, her arms and legs frozen in place.

“What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, oh. Is Kara fascinated by the wrong person?
> 
> We'll know in the next chapter. Though I'm sure you already know the answer.
> 
> Hope you liked it!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena wants something back (and also is uncharacteristically shy), Kara is eternally confused, Alex is not helping at all, they should probably fix the bracelet, and our leading ladies go on a... date?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap. Almost 80 kudos after just one chapter? I'm overwhelmed and very thankful! Thank you so much for leaving comments as well. I loved reading them. Moving on, here's the second chapter. I'm trying to motivate myself and write chapters with no less than 2000 words, so hold hands with me as I wish for this to keep on going! 
> 
> All grammatical errors/typos are all mine and as always, I hope you enjoy it!

Kara has never experienced anything in slow motion. At least, on planet Earth. She can say a lot of things about the entire world in slow motion during the years she spent inside her pod, but the feeling of being restricted in such a small space is considerably far away from her mind right now.

Because right now, all she can think of is how her heart almost feels like it’s going to jump out of her chest any second now; like it’s trying to pound its way out of her ribcage and into the deepest part of the pool, far away from the woman seated so calmly on its edge, still with that curiously cheeky smile on her face.

Kara tries to remember the breathing exercises Alex taught her during her first week on Earth when everything overwhelmed her and she often found herself sitting in dark corners with her hands over her ears and eyes shut tightly. Breathe in, breathe out, slowly, surely; make sure to take it all in and to push it all out. Feel the agitation gather in her lungs and push it out through her mouth – all of it, leave nothing inside her.

And it works, somehow, it does. Although her hands have gone cold and almost numb, her mind jumbled just enough to make her want to swim towards the other side of the pool, she gathers just enough courage to swim closer to the edge to plant her hands on the tiled floor, perhaps only a few feet away from the pale-skinned woman. She fights the urge to curl her fingers into her palms, not wanting to accidentally claw the tiles out instead.

“What are you talking about?”

There. Calm, sure, _collected_. It’s a good question; a good start to finish what this woman is on about as quickly as possible. Surely, she hasn’t made herself very obvious, right? She’s been partially submerged in the water and even though there was a moment where she had been floating without the aid of her arms and legs, the woman has made no indication of awe or horror for possibly figuring it out.

God, Kara really hopes she hasn’t.

“I said, you have something that is mine,” the woman says again, and this time her cheeky smile spreads into a gleeful grin. “My towel.”

That gives Kara a pause, her head tilting to the side as she furrows her eyebrows. “Your towel?”

“Two days ago? I was here that day and you took my towel from that chair,” the woman replies while pointing at the said chair.

Kara follows the direction at which her finger is pointing at and her confusion remains for only a second longer before the realization dawns on her.

“Oh, R- gosh. Your towel?”

“Uh-huh. I know it’s just a towel, but I happened to have bought it from France and that towel brings with it some very fond memories, so…” the woman quirks an eyebrow, and Kara thinks that particular expression suits her – _compliments_ her, actually, and Kara shouldn’t be thinking about that right now. Not at all. “May I have it back?”

Right. The towel.

Kara tries to rummage through her memories from two days ago. She does remember taking a towel from a nearby chair, but she had been too preoccupied with getting away from the same woman she’s conversing with to take notice of the color and the general appearance of the towel; to stop and throw the towel back and _claim_ what is actually hers instead.

Does she remember washing the towel at home? She doesn’t think so. Maybe she never brought the towel home like she usually does after finishing her sessions at the gym. Or maybe she did but forgot all about it because she had better things to think about or do in her spare time. She has been assisting Alex with improving her bracelet, looking for a job that might suit her and help her in immersing herself in the human world, and basically just trying to be _more_ human.

She just had no time to think about a damned towel.

“I can’t remember,” she finally replies after noticing that she’s been too quiet for a little too long. “I am sorry, though, for bringing it home. It wasn’t my intention.”

The woman keeps her eyebrow arched at Kara – perhaps, noticing her… not so modern way of speaking – and Kara tries her best not to show her anxiety on her face.

She purses her lips and clears her throat. “I-I’ll bring it tomorrow and give it to you… if you’re around, that is.”

“I will be,” the other replies rather quickly, and then holds out a hand to Kara, who barely keeps herself from flinching away from the gesture. “I’m Lena.”

And Kara just keeps on staring at her hand. She remembers this gesture from her lessons with Alex – it’s a form of a greeting and it typically means that someone wants to get to know you when it’s your first time meeting them. Kara knows how to respond to this; she’s practiced it with Alex more than a hundred times and has successfully reciprocated one from so many people without fear of accidentally crushing their bones.

With this woman, _Lena_, however, Kara fears for the well-being of that… hand that’s making her feel things she hasn’t felt before. Still, she tries, because how else will she know if she really is in control of herself if she doesn’t even go for it?

So, with a bit too much speed -- perhaps her eagerness to prove something to herself --, she takes Lena’s hand in hers and shakes it once, firmly so as to not seem uninterested, like Alex once said to her. She shakes it again, then parts her lips to a well-practiced smile.

“I’m Kara,” she says, a slight pause after a short breath at having to remind herself of her new name. “Danvers. Kara Danvers.”

“Nice to meet you, Kara Danvers,” Lena replies, her voice colored with what Kara can sense is amusement, though there seems to be something entirely different reflected in her eyes. Is she possibly hurting her? “Well, I’ll leave you to your own devices. I just really stopped by to ask for my towel.”

“Oh,” Kara nods slowly. “Okay. Yeah, that’s all right.”

“Right.”

“It was nice meeting you, too.”

“I can see that.”

“… Right.”

Lena glances down at their _still_ connected hands. “My hand, please?”

With lightning speed, Kara retrieves her hand, causing a huge splash on the water. A blush creeps up from her neck when she sees Lena flinch as the water hit her face. “I-I’m sorry. Yeah, I’ll just go. I-It was nice meeting you.”

And then she’s off to the other side of the pool, the deeper side of it, where there won’t be a floor to aid her in getting. She disregards that little detail and simply uses her arms to pull her out of the water, unapologetic just this once for using her strength to make a smooth exit.

It doesn’t even occur to her that she _shouldn’t_ have been able to do that at all with her new and improved bracelet still firmly clasped around her wrist.

//

She is two minutes into showering when she hears the telling sound of someone entering the locker room. At first, it doesn’t even register in Kara’s mind that it can be Lena, the woman from before, with the slender neck and the dainty fingers and the hair as dark as the starless night sky, but when she senses the now-familiar sensation of her heartbeat _slowly_ picking up its pace, as if it’s warning her of something approaching – something dangerous – she straightens up and turns the shower off.

She waits for something, _anything_, but nothing comes at all. If this Lena has bad intentions, the locker room is definitely the perfect place to perform a crime against Kara. There are no cameras, no possible witnesses because as far as Kara is aware, there’s only the two of them in the aquatic center, and if her guess from before is correct, if she’s actually given herself away to this woman… why hasn’t she done anything at all?

Why does the locker room remain quiet aside from the soft sounds of bottles being taken out of a bag, of fabric rubbing softly against damp skin?

Most importantly, why does Kara hear all these when she has her _apparently_ improved bracelet?

The door of the cubicle next to the one she’s occupying opens and closes, and Kara waits. Is Lena going to pour something over her head? Poison? Acid? Or is it something that’ll definitely affect her regardless of having her bracelet or not?

“Kara?”

She flinches at the sound of her name coming from Lena’s mouth. “Y-Yes?”

“I’m sorry about earlier,” comes a quick, but soft response from the other woman. “I feel like I made you uncomfortable.”

“N-No! No, gosh, no. Not at all,” Kara combs her fingers through her damp hair, hissing quietly when they catch on a tangle. “I’m just… not used to people…” _What? Getting to know me? Greeting me? Asking who I am?_

“Not used to people, huh?”

Kara blinks and glances up at the ceiling as if she can see Lena. “Uh, no, um…” she sighs. “Yeah.”

It’s quiet for a moment, and Kara almost thinks she’s successfully driven Lena away with her weird behavior when Lena speaks again. “Kara?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you meet me outside in ten minutes?”

Kara frowns. “Why?”

“… Just meet me outside in ten minutes? If you’re not by the entrance, I’ll take it as a no.”

Kara feels her frown deepening, but finds her self stuttering out a response to Lena – only because there seems to be _something_ pulling at her heartstrings as if it’s Lena’s voice, the quiet, pleading tone of it.

“Okay.”

//

Kara’s been standing outside the gym’s entrance for a minute not. One more minute to go, and it’ll be ten minutes since she came out of the locker room donned in her typical outfit of a comfortable shirt and skinny jeans.

It’s silly, but she almost feels like she’s the one who invited Lena to meet her outside when it’s supposed to be the other way around. But at the same time, it’s a little fascinating because she seems to be displaying a new behavior she hasn’t done before.

Waiting for someone or something has never been an issue since arriving on Earth. She’s always been a patient child after all, and if being stuck in a pod for more or less a decade has taught her anything, it’s certainly waiting for the right time – the right, _perfect_ time.

Then again, when she first had her taste of food on earth, it did elicit a sort of _eager_ reaction from her, like she’s suddenly incapable of stopping herself from consuming as much food as she can despite how foreign they all were to her. But it is food, and she was stuck in a pod for a decade, without food or water, so that reaction had been considered normal – _extremely_ normal, because she was obviously starving.

Lena is not food. Kara is not starving.

Oh, Rao, what does it mean?

“Kara.”

The relieved tone in Lena’s voice startles Kara just enough to make her look to the door. There, Lena’s standing with her hands both holding onto the strap of her gym bag across her chest, donned in a cozy-looking sweater and skinny jeans. Her hair is still wet, and it makes Kara think that Lena stayed in the shower for a bit more and just came out when her ten minutes is almost up. It almost makes her think of running her fingers through those soft-looking strands, and she almost does. She notices herself stepping forward with her hand held out, and only when she meets Lena’s eyes, seeing the wonder, a little hint of reluctance, and curiosity in them, that she snaps out of it and drops her hand back to her side.

“Um, there was something in your hair, but the wind got it.”

It is a windless day in National City. Lucky for her, Lena seems to not put too much care on her peculiar words and just smiles with a gentle shake of her head.

“So, you’re here.”

Kara nods. “You told me to meet you here.”

“You could have chosen not to.”

“… Well, I wanted to know why.”

Kara watches how Lena tilts her chin up, her chest expanding as if she’s preparing for something _big_, something serious and requiring of her full attention, and Kara wonders if this is a reaction she always does when she’s about to say something lifechanging; something so important that she has to do this stance.

“I lied.”

And Kara wonders if she has been a fool all this time. Has she been so captivated by this woman’s appearance that she missed the cues?

“Explain,” she says, her voice somehow dropping low, almost like a growl.

The surprise in Lena’s eyes is fleeting, immediately replaced with nonchalance. “About the towel,” she shrugs. “You didn’t take my towel.”

The damned towel again. Kara frowns, head shaking as she laughs in disbelief. “Why would you lie about that?”

Kara will always remember this day as the day she first finds someone’s flushed face pretty attractive. She watches in awe as the soft hue of pink starts at the base of Lena’s neck, slowly creeping up to her cheeks and to the tip of her ears, and really, it’s subtle. It’s probably something that human eyes can’t normally see, but like two days ago, when Kara heard Lena’s heartbeat from meters away, when she saw her moles and her freckles as clear as the day, and just a few minutes ago when she heard the sound of Lena’s towel rubbing softly against her skin—

It’s glaringly obvious.

Even with the glasses covering her eyes, the bracelet helping her control her superhuman abilities under the yellow sun, all these things about Lena is like a misplaced elephant in the middle of National City. Kara has no choice but to notice them all.

“Because…” Lena begins, and Kara focuses on her to not miss anything, but the brunette furrows her eyebrows and takes in a deep breath, releasing it slowly through her nose, clearly giving up to whatever is making this so hard for her. “Are you available tomorrow?”

Kara feels like the earth just got snatched away from underneath her feet. She suddenly feels out of balance, and yes, it’s because of all the sudden changes and the confusion they’re causing her.

She genuinely has no idea what is going on at this point.

Maybe she should just leave.

Maybe Lena’s the weird one, jumping from one topic to another; beginning to explain but only to end asking Kara a question.

“I have no idea-“

“If you’re not busy tomorrow,” Lena interrupts hastily. “There’s a restaurant called _Noonan’s_ just a few blocks from here. If you’re free, if you don’t have work, meet me there at noon for lunch, a-and then I’ll explain everything.”

Kara feels her lips part, mostly because of _extreme_ confusion than anything, and she remains just like that in the streets, amidst people walking from one destination to another, even after Lena’s gone and disappeared in the crowd.

//

“What’s her name again?”

“Lena.”

“Okay. That makes it really easy to find this Lena among _thousands _of Lena’s in National City.”

“Well, we are not going to find her, Alex.”

Alex frowns. “What do you mean? This Lena is showing interest, Kara. _Odd_ interest. If this was a crush, I would understand. Remember Siobhan from Midvale University? Rhea from the local pharmacy? And don’t forget Rain from the barn down the road.”

Kara chokes in the middle of drinking her juice.

“Yeah,” Alex nods with a funny look on her face. “Exactly. So, tell me. Is Lena like that?”

“No!” Kara wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, her frown turning into a sheepish look when Alex regards her with interest. “It’s just, no. She’s not… like them. She wasn’t really, you know, knocking on my door, asking to see me.”

That would have been _unacceptable_, considering that the only door that separated her and Lena was a door leading into a shower stall.

“But she asked you on a date.”

“A date?” Kara blinks. “What… date?”

“Kara, if you’re playing dumb with me, you better not be.”

“I am not!”

Alex sighs heavily. “Oh, boy. Okay. Listen to me. She told you to meet her at Noona’s tomorrow, correct? For lunch?”

Kara nods slowly. “Yes.”

“What did you say?”

“… Nothing.”

Alex frowns. “What do you mean nothing?”

“She left before I could say anything?”

Alex purses her lips and rolls her eyes. “Well, okay, are you going?”

Kara glances at her glass of juice, deep in her thoughts for a moment, before looking up at Alex again. “I think… I want to.”

Leaving out the reason why should not be illegal, right?

A look of surprise briefly passes over Alex’s face, before it settles back to her typical stoic look. “Do you remember when Siobhan asked you if you’re working on a weekday?”

Kara just nods in response before Alex continues, “And you remember that Siobhan’s intentions were not platonic at all, yes?”

Heat gathers in Kara’s cheeks as she nods again, squeaking out, “Yes.”

“That’s basically what happened there, Kara,” Alex claps her hands once. “She approaches you at the pool, strikes up a conversation, you leave, she talks to you again, _you leave again_, and then you guys meet outside and she tells you to meet her for lunch. That’s a _date_, Kara. This Lena person? Has _romantic_ intentions for you.”

It is basically information overload, but Kara’s intelligence isn’t necessarily dampened by the bracelet around her wrist. She understands it clearly, but in the end, all she could say is, “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Alex snorts. “Oh. So, if you’re planning on going tomorrow? Better rest up, handsome. You’re going to need all the beauty rest.”

//

Of course, Kara is free the next day. She doesn’t really have a job after all. Not yet. All expenses are paid for by the DEO. Very kind of them, Kara thinks, but she knows she has to start looking for a job that will suit her and be kind to her very soon to start taking care of herself.

But that’ll be for another day. Today, she’s going to find out why Lena lied about her towel.

She finds that familiar head full of dark locks in the midst of chattering humans inside the restaurant. What’s more unusual is she actually catches her heartbeat, familiar and unique in the crowd, and it basically acts like a beacon for her.

She makes her gentle approach in front of Lena, catching her attention from the laptop she has on the table with a soft call of her name.

“Lena?”

Lena immediately looks up from the screen of her laptop and regards with a look of disbelief, like she can’t actually believe Kara is there, indulging her odd invitation again.

“Kara,” she says with what seems to be a sigh of relief. “Please, sit down. Do you want to order first?”

“Sure,” Kara smiles. She’ll never say no to food. “Any recommendations?”

A silent nod to Alex for teaching her that line.

“I love their salad,” Lena says, and is that a challenge in her voice?

Kara blinks a few times as she glances down at the menu. “Actually, I’ll get coffee. I just had lunch with Alex.”

“Oh.”

Kara looks up to find a crestfallen look on Lena’s face, but it’s gone almost immediately. “Did I interrupt anything? If you had prior arrangements, you shouldn’t have bothered.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry. Alex was okay with it.”

“If you’re sure…”

Kara smiles, surprisingly genuine this time. “I am very sure.”

A waiter comes to take their order not long after that. Lena gets something with … Kale in it, whatever that thing is, while she gets a tall glass of coffee with way too much milk and sugar in it. When he leaves, Kara clasps her hands together and rests them on the table, looking at Lena expectantly.

“Right,” Lena chuckles quietly. “The thing you came here for, right?”

Kara hums, and Lena responds with a nod of her head. “I lied because…”

“Because?” Kara prompts, not wanting this to digress again.

Kara sees Lena’s jaw clench before it relaxes and words finally come out of her mouth—

“Because I wanted to get to know you.”

Since coming to live on Earth, Kara has met many people who wanted to get to know her – whether they are people from the DEO or neighbors in Midvale who liked her for her face and mostly positive disposition – so this shouldn’t be new to her, but it still baffles her that Lena had to do something as bad as _lying_ just to get to know her.

And she doesn’t hide this from her face. She frowns as she asks, “Why did you have to lie?”

“I didn’t know how else to catch your attention.” Lena shrugs.

“You could have said hello!”

“I did!” Lena clicks her tongue softly, almost inaudible if not for her keen hearing. “I just—didn’t know how to do it _properly_.” Lena sighs heavily again as she places her hand on the screen of her laptop, pushing it back down to its body. “Okay. I just wanted to make friends, Kara. That’s all.”

Seeing the stress in Lena’s face somehow convinces Kara to let it go. Instead of asking her more questions, of possibly finding out why Lena is, for some reason, negating the functions of her bracelet, she decides to go down a lighter path – a new start, as what Alex has taught her before.

“Okay,” Kara says resolutely, and Lena looks up with curious disbelief.

“Okay?”

“I’ll be your friend,” Kara says again, this time with a smile across her face.

A smile that only grows wider and warmer when Lena visibly relaxes and reciprocates the smile with her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! Kudos and comments will always be appreciated.
> 
> Tumblr: @nopompousjargon


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